TALES OF ADVENTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 58, 9 March 1923, Page 11

TALES OF ADVENTURE.

.THE MYSTERIOUS CASTAWAY

« jJTTUi-KNOWTM STORY OF CAMPBEIX ISLAND. (By HENRY BATKSOX.) Of all the remarkable talcs that nre told of the South Sea* few can equal in romance and pathetic tragedy the story of the mysterious castaway of Campbell Tsland. :hat lonely, mountainous isle lying nearly 150 miles off the southern extremity of the South Island. The full 6 toI T u-i " n(>vcr lie told - Jt ls one of the myßt.ries of history, but itray references in old papers and books, 'end some old remam« on Campbell Island enable 11s to piece the story together with a fair amount of accuracy. To-day the only human inhabitants on Campbell Island are two B hepherds>. TKerlive in a small hut, close to which, almost hidden by rank grass and dense icrub, are the ruin? of a sod cottage. A pile of blackened atones marks the place where the fireplace once stood. A narrow path, now overgrown by coarse JJ4JS and wiry bracken, winds down from .the ruins to the beach below. Close'at hand, in a small open space amid the tall scrub, a lonely grave lies hidden, unmarked save by the dense, gweet-scented heather which grows over it in profusion. In this small sod cottage the mysterious castaway once lived; now her earthly remains He buried beneath that mass of heather. There is no common tombstone to record her name and age, but the narrow pathway leading down to the beach is a much more fitting monument than a sordid gravestone. Although overgrown "by grass and light undergrowth, the path is still visible, and the diligent marcher will discover that it irf constructed of white pebbles and water-worn stones, laid closely side by side and pressed tightly into the ground. The construction of that path must have occupied many years. The small, glittering pebbles are only to be found at a considerable distance from the pathway. They arc worn out of the solid limestone by the

.action of the waves, and nowhere pise yonv on the island are they to be discovered. ' '.To collect even a hatful of the stones vi/the work oi a whole day. Many years must have passed before the mysterious castaway collected sufficient ftones to cobble the path with, and the I labour of placing them neatly side by 'jide and ramming them into the earth ' must have occupied almost the length of time it has taken to build the Parliament Buildings in Wellington. When

the path was originally made there was hardly a cra-.k or crevice between the t. etones, but to-day coarse grass has made many a crevice between the stones. < There are many versions of how the mysterious castway came to be marooned on Campbell Island. The only point upon which all versions , agree is that the mysterious castaway

was a woman. sic was a Frenchwoman ]jy birth, but of Scotch extraction. According to one story she was the dliightor of Meg Wilkinson, the staunch friend of Bonnie Prince Charlie, of '45 to. Meg Wilkinson was present it.the festivities before and, after i'reston Pans, and when the prince fled to Fnnce she accompanied him. The

remnants of the Jacobite party were tnfaa of her influence over the young minqß-wtd did ell irr their power to diaerfif her in his eyes. But their • tljbijii'- were unavailing, and when she ditier daughter, a girl of surpassing taraty, succeeded to. the place in the priijiMY affections which her mother i»4 J previously occupied. THji ffecobitee determined , to get rid of the beautiful girl who exercised such in influence over the prince. Accordingly they .arranged with the whaler Stewart, *the man who, in 1808 discovered, that Stewart Island wae separated from the South leland, to convey ' her to some distant land. The girl was kidnapped and placed aboard the whaler* eventually being marooned on Campbell leland. It is a well-known jfact that Stewart frequently boasted ihat he had been on intimate terms with .the prince and hie immediate followers, and the probability is that this ' :|s the correct version of the story of '"the ■'mysterious castaway of Campbell Island. Another vereiw makes the girl castaway of royal birth. Unwisely she laid claim to the throne of England. :ljer claim was 'a strong one and there were many willing to believe her tht> pjnl heir. Finding that her follower* ■were''daily growing in strength, her .opponents decided on bold measures. •She wm kidnapped, and placed aboard a ' Dundee whaler to be banished to Camp-

bell Island. But according to this verr.rion she was alive seventy-six years •go—in 1817—whereas Sir Jamea Ross, • inithe account of his Antarctic expcdi-

tioh of 1840, states that elie was accidently drowned shortly prior to his

arrival fit Campbell Island. But, whichever version Is true, it is certain that for many years she lived a lonely existence on Campbell Island, passing her time away in constructing that neat pathway from her hut to the teach. But how came the dense mass otheather upon her lonely grave?